Addition Of Positive COVID-19 Cases Breaks Records, Experts Request Reconsideration Of The Commercial Sector

Traditional market (Photo: Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - The record for the addition of positive cases of COVID-19 was again achieved with a total of 2,657 cases in the last 24 hours. Seeing this, the government needs to consider opening the commercial sector to prevent an explosion in the number of positive cases of COVID-19.

"I have been urging this for a long time (opening the commercial sector, red). This is very important because now it is clear that the potential (of transmission through, red) airborne," said epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University Dicky Budiman when contacted by VOI, Thursday, July 10. .

Some time ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the new corona virus that causes COVID-19 could spread through the air, after being pushed by hundreds of scientists. Previously, WHO had insisted the virus was only transmitted by droplets when people coughed or sneezed.

Returning to Dicky, he said that a number of commercial sectors in the community that will be reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic must conduct an evaluation regarding their services. This, he continued, must also be done by cinemas in Jakarta that will open even though the spread of this virus is still happening.

"If you want to open it, you have to do several evaluations. Starting from the circulation system and air ventilation. Service patterns such as online only, capacity management, and disinfection before and after the film show, 3M rules (washing hands, using masks, maintaining distance), and pause. between performance sessions is sufficient, "he explained.

Dicky said the government must continue to prepare for the potential for additional positive cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia. He even predicted that this addition would continue until next September. "Unless there is a very strong and strict intervention accompanied by public awareness," he said.

This epidemiologist even calculated that this July, Indonesia, especially Java Island, will enter a prone phase of the transmission of COVID-19. This phase will continue for three months and is due to the fact that the government has implemented a new phase of normalcy which causes the mobility of people to increase.

He also denied the government's statement that the increase in cases was due to massive tests being carried out. According to Dicky, the government has not actually detected positive cases of COVID-19 in the community. This can be seen from the positive rate which is above 10 percent.

"So many positive cases are not because of the many tests but because there are many cases of COVID-19 infection in the community," he said while asking the government to continue to improve testing, case tracking, isolation, and educating the public about health protocols.

Red light

President Joko Widodo has taken such a high number of cases. According to him, this addition should alert all parties. "I need to remind you that this is already a red light again," he said in a video broadcast on YouTube at the Presidential Secretariat.

"Today nationally this positive case is very high, 2,657," he added.

The former Governor of DKI Jakarta then reminded regional heads not to relax their vigilance in preventing and controlling COVID-19. This also applies to Central Kalimantan Province, where the accumulated number of positive cases of COVID-19 has reached 1,093.

Even though it is considered low, Jokowi has asked that cases in this region continue to be well controlled and the provincial government carries out strict crisis management. In addition, the president also reminded local governments to invite the public to play an active role in fighting this pandemic.

"(If, red) the people are not invited by all to work together to solve this, be careful the numbers I have said can increase. This should not be taken lightly," he said.

Previously, with the addition of 2,657 positive COVID-19 cases, the total cumulative cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia reached 70,736. The regions with the most figures on Thursday, July 7 were West Java with a total of 962 new cases.

This figure is obtained from the results of tests that came out simultaneously from the cluster of candidates for Indonesian Army officers. Then, the number of patients who died today increased by 58 people, to become 3,417 patients. There were an additional 1,066 patients recovered, bringing the total to 32,651 patients.